Cancer Worry Among Urban Dominican Women: A Qualitative Study

Background: Two thirds of respondents of a recent survey, primarily self-identified urban immigrant Dominican females, indicated that cancer was the health problem they worried about the most. Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain a greater understanding of the cancer worry experienced by Dominican women. Design: Giorgi’s descriptive existential phenomenological framework and methodology guided the study. Setting: Washington Heights/Inwood community, New York City, New York. Participants: Thirty-eight urban Dominican immigrant women were included in the study. Method: Data were gathered using focus group interviews. All interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim from Spanish to English. The transcripts were analyzed using Giorgi’s existential phenomenological data analysis process. Findings: Four essences unfolded: Cancer as Destiny, Faith, Influential Relationships, and Knowledge Acquisition. Conclusion: New knowledge was generated on the contextual factors that influence cancer worry among a major Hispanic subgroup. Implications for nursing research and practice are described.

Breast Cancer Prevalence and Mortality among Hispanic Subgroups in the United States, 2009–2013

Background. This paper presents data on breast cancer prevalence and mortality among US Hispanics and Hispanic subgroups, including Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central American, and South American.Methods. Five-year average annual female breast cancer prevalence and mortality rates for 2009–2013 were examined using data from the National Health Interview Survey (prevalence) and the National Center for Health Statistics and the American Community Survey (mortality rates).Results. Overall breast cancer prevalence among US Hispanic women was 1.03%. Although the estimates varied slightly by Hispanic subgroup, these differences were not statistically significant. The breast cancer mortality rate for Hispanics overall was 17.71 per 100,000 women. Higher rates were observed among Cubans (17.89), Mexicans (18.78), and Puerto Ricans (19.04), and a lower rate was observed among Central and South Americans (10.15). With the exception of the rate for Cubans, all Hispanic subgroup rates were statistically significantly different from the overall Hispanic rate. Additionally, all Hispanic subgroups rates were statistically significantly higher than the Central and South American rate.Conclusion. The data reveal significant differences in mortality across Hispanic subgroups. These data enable public health officials to develop targeted interventions to help lower breast cancer mortality among the highest risk populations.

Self-Reported Diabetes in Hispanic Subgroup, Non-Hispanic Black, and Non-Hispanic White Populations: National Health Interview Survey, 1997–2005

Objectives. We estimated the prevalence of self-reported diabetes in Hispanic subgroup (Puerto Rican, Mexican, Mexican American, Cuban, Dominican, Central and South American, and other Hispanic), non-Hispanic black, and non-Hispanic white populations aged 20 years and older. Methods. Using the National Health Interview Survey 1997–2005, we limited these analyses to 272,041 records of adults aged 20 years and older, including 46,749 records for Hispanic respondents. We used logistic regression to assess the strength of the association between race/ethnicity and self-reported diabetes before and after adjusting for selected characteristics. Results. Compared with non-Hispanic white respondents, Mexican American (odds ratio [OR] = 2.02; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.75, 2.34), Mexican (OR=1.52; 95% CI 1.31, 1.91), Puerto Rican (OR=1.53; 95% CI 1.23, 1.91), other Hispanic (OR=2.08; 95% CI 1.68, 2.58), and non-Hispanic black (OR=1.47; 95% CI 1.35, 1.61) respondents had greater odds of reporting diabetes. When compared with non-Hispanic white respondents, Mexican American respondents with less than a high school diploma had the lowest odds of reporting diabetes, while those with at least a college degree had greater odds of reporting diabetes. However, Puerto Rican respondents with less than a high school education, Mexican respondents with at least some college education, and other Hispanic respondents with at least a high school diploma/general equivalency diploma had greater odds of reporting diabetes. Conclusions. Although Hispanic respondents bear a greater burden of diabetes than non-Hispanic white respondents, this burden is unevenly distributed across subgroups. These findings call attention to data disaggregation whenever possible for U.S. racial/ethnic populations classified under categories considered homogeneous.